Psalm 147:3-5 This psalm specifically rejoices in the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. It was a momentous time for the people after many years of exile in Babylon. Their captivity was a punishment for the way in which they had disobeyed the Lor...
Titus 3:1-2 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has 38 member countries. It regularly runs surveys to discover the level of trust that people have in their government. In the UK, that level is about 40 per cent, lowe...
Titus 2:9-10 The idea of slavery is so appalling that it is hard for us to imagine what it would be like to live in a world where it was normal. However, in the Roman Empire, it was an accepted part of everyday life. In this passage, Paul is...
Titus 2:1 Paul’s letters are incredibly down to earth. He was very concerned to ensure that everyone understood the basic elements of Christian doctrine. That is to say, they needed to know who God is and why he sent Jesus into the world to save...
Titus 1:15 These words may well feel familiar. They closely echo the words of Jesus when he said: “A good person produces the good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart...
Titus 1:5-6 Crete had many cities. Homer, the Greek poet, described the island as “Crete of the hundred cities.” The apostle Paul was clearly concerned that each community of Christian believers should have leadership, and he trusted his friend T...
Titus 1:2 We inevitably spend much of our life focused on the here and now. We need to eat, drink, work and sleep, and often there isn’t much time to do anything else. But we all need to find time to stand back from all this busyness and look at...
Titus 1:1 Paul was born into a strongly Jewish family and also had the privilege of being a Roman citizen. It is quite likely that his family were wealthy and that he would have been waited on by slaves from birth. He certainly wasn’t a slave him...
Proverbs 2:1-2 I wonder what you treasure most of all. Perhaps it’s your car, some jewellery or something precious that a friend gave you. Perhaps you would point to your relationship with your family or a special friend. Whatever it is, you will...
Proverbs 1:20-22 Wisdom is portrayed as a woman who tries to share her wise thoughts in the middle of a busy town. She finds that her offer isn’t what people want to hear. They insist on going their own way and she warns them of the terrible impl...
Proverbs 1:8-9 The writer of Proverbs spent a lot of energy focusing on the family. He knew that a strong family was the most crucial building block for the whole of society. Today, nothing has changed. Society pays a terrible price when families...
Proverbs 1:7 These words are often described as the motto of the wisdom books of the Bible, because we not only find it repeated in the book of Proverbs (9:10 and 15:33) but also in Psalm 111:10 and Job 28:28. The person who seeks true knowledge...
Proverbs 1:1-3 In every bookshop and railway station bookstall you’ll find books with catchy titles such as How to Stay Happy and Healthy, How to Live a Long Life, or How to Thrive in Retirement. In the book of Proverbs, we meet an ancient versio...
Psalm 146:3-5 I haven’t done it myself, but I am told that if you were to count up all the verses in the entire Bible, Psalm 146:3 is the exact midpoint. It certainly declares a critically important truth. It isn’t claiming that powerful and infl...
Psalm 145:13-14 I am often asked to write a reference for people, and I consider it a privilege to do so. I love it when I am able to describe someone as being totally reliable. Few things are more important than reliability. A person might b...
